A Bullish Start for the New Year!

On the first day of trading of 2006, the Dow closed up 130 , and the Nasdaq was up 38. This spike was mostly due to the release of the December 13th minutes from the last Federal Reserve meeting.

Some dates to keep in mind regarding the Federal Reserve:

• January 31st - Alan Greenspan retires as Fed Chair, most likely a rate bump up.
• March 28th - first Fed meeting led by new Fed Chair Ben Bernanke, possibly last Fed rate hike for the time being.

Other financial news of interest:

• Manufacturing in December grew at a slower pace than November. Though this is by nature bearish news, it was to be expected. Manufacturing peaked in November due to hurricane rebuilding efforts, and is now leveling off at a new plateau.
• Intel Corp. (INTC) is beginning an aggressive marketing campaign to kick off its focus on a new Core processor, and a drive to immerse its chips into smaller digital devices.
• Viacom Inc. (VIA-B) split from CBS Corp. (CBS) and began trading under its own ticker today. Some analysts are worried that CBS Corp. will become sluggish, without a handhold in the new types of media markets. However, if CBS Corp.'s stock price decreases enough in value, it could become a potential takeover opportunity at some point for another media company.